Nanaimo's by David Hobson Are you curious to know where Mount Benson got its name? I
t is hard to arrive in Nanaimo by air, sea, or road without noticing the 1,023-metre-high mountain on the western edge of the city. Mount Benson is Nanaimo’s weather vane. Winter begins with
snow on the top of Mount Benson and spring begins with the melting of the last snow. It’s difficult to imagine, but few in the city know anything about Dr. Alfred Robson Benson after whom the mountain is named. Just to make it clear, Benson was not the first name given to the mountain. To the Snuneymuxw First Nation, the mountain was “Taitookton”or Te’tuxw’tun (uncovered mountain) and later named Wakesiah, a Chinook Jargon phrase meaning ‘not far away.’ Alfred Robson Benson was born on Nov. 21, 1815 in Whitby,
Yorkshire and was the ninth child of William and Elizabeth Benson’s 12 children. Whitby is a seaport on the northeast coast of England with a long history of seafaring men. Benson, however, chose medicine, having attended Guy’s Teaching Hospital in London and graduating in May of 1848. [Graduating in March of 1848 was John Sebastian Helmcken, a friend and Benson’s future colleague in Fort Victoria]. In 1848, Benson joined the Hudson’s Bay Company and in mid-
December of the same year set off to Vancouver Island aboard the barque, Harpooner. She was a 213-ton brigantine (barque) chartered by the Honourable Hudson’s Bay Company to transport the oversman John Muir, his family, and seven Scottish labourers to the coal fields of Fort Rupert near present-day Port Hardy. Also on board were the workmen recruited by Captain Walter Colquhoun Grant and James Yates, amongst others. [Grant is credited incidentally with bringing the first Scotch broom plant life to Vancouver Island, although “credited” may not be the first word that pops into your head]. Fort Victoria was sighted on May 31, 1849. The doctor who had
cared for the passengers on the Harpooner now cared for the residents of the small fort. He was described by Doctor Helmcken in as “sterling, honest, kind-hearted and upright” but also a grumbler and a bit of a radical. Helmcken thought that Benson “did not fit in” and that “possibly he (Benson) could not serve two masters – Blanchard and the
Hudson’s Bay Company in the shape of Mr. Douglas.” Frequently it was pointed out that Benson took little care of his
appearance and often looked slovenly. Helmcken recalled being shown the sights of the fort with Benson dressed in his dirty sea boots, pants tucked in his boots, while Helmcken looked the perfect greenhorn with his London-made thin-soled highly polished footwear. But Benson had a sense of humour. Once at dinner in the mess room of the fort, Douglas asked Dr. Benson why so many of the Hudson’s Bay officers were bald. The doctor replied “pro pelle cutum’’... they had sent their furs home. Douglas was not amused by “the poetry of the thing” asking him once for the prose – the cause. Benson was unable to answer. Dr. Benson was a collector of books, First Nations artifacts, and
geological specimens, and had a passion for photography and pipe smoking. What he photographed I have no idea and I even wonder if any of his photos are still in existence. They would be quite the find. Fort Victoria’s first doctor was a man of unusual pursuits. In the fort, there were two types of people – the Hudson’s Bay
employees who were loyal and obedient to the Chief Factor, James Douglas, and those who sided with the first governor of the island colony, Richard Blanchard. Benson, outspoken and witty, favoured Blanchard’s approach to governing. It was not likely the cleverest tact to take especially after Blanchard’s departure (retreat?) in 1850 and Douglas’s subsequent appointment as governor. Later in 1850 the good doctor was sent (exiled?) to the Hudson’s
Bay post at Fort Vancouver, Oregon Territory, US. Benson was both surgeon and clerk, and later from 1854-1855, surgeon for the Western Oregon Department. It was at Fort Vancouver that he made the acquaintance of Ulysses S. Grant, Regimental Quartermaster for the fourth US Infantry stationed at the fort. Grant owed him money apparently! In May of 1855, Benson retired back to England but doctoring was still in his blood and he returned to Vancouver Island – this time being
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